Making Mochi in Ichikawa

I went to Ichikawa "city center" today to meet a friend for lunch. When I stepped out of the bank I noticed a crowd down the pedestrian Ai Ai Road. Upon closer inspection I saw that there was a group of people and all sorts of equipment more or less under a marquee. Several of the people were of a rather large size and dressed in yukata  (are they real sumo san, or wannabes, I don't know).

They were using a large wooden mallet to pound cooked glutinous rice into mochi. When it's finished it's a sticky white mass that is used in all sorts of traditional sweets. This is the time of year for mochi making and all sorts of confections featuring mochi are available in stores.

Of course mochi can be preserved and is available year round in blocks that can be softened by heating in toaster ovens or microwaves or under the gas grill. Mochi is also an ingredient in the traditional New Year's soup called zoni. Every year people are reminded to be careful when eating mochi. It is so difficult to bite a small bit off the mass of mochi to be chewed and swallowed that a person often gets more than they bargained for. It's quite easy to choke on it!

These sweet sisters were enjoying their treat as were many others.

Christmas Dinner 2010

Hosted by the Aylings and gathering in family and friends from here and there...

featuring a beautifully done turkey and Christmas pudding.

Thanks for a lovely Christmas day!

Today was bright and sunny...

The Sky Tree on the right. Fuji san
dimly center horizon

It's the National Holiday that starts our winter break to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. A typical winter day in the Tokyo area. It's also the unofficial beginning of the Mt Fuji viewing season. I went into the station area this afternoon and thought it was a great day to go to the top of the I-Link building with the observation area at the top. I was surprised to see the stairway up one more level open as it has been closed on my previous visits. With the bright sun and the glass, picture taking was difficult, but I gave it a try. Here's one shot. Hopefully I can get the rest on to the slide show at the right.

What a Lovely Day!

This beautiful sunny Sunday morning I headed off to Omote-sando to attend the Worship Service at Tokyo Union Church. I had been wanting to see what it's like and found out from my friend Julie that the choir was going to do Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten. I really enjoyed the service. TUC calls itself an ecumenical and international congregation of English-speaking Christians. To me it seemed to blend a bit of Presbyterian with some Baptist and a touch of Anglican. Mostly though it has the feel of "church" and is all in English.

Julie was more than pleased to see me. I got to meet her husband, and we went to lunch together. What a lovely day!

Oh yes, I guess I did break them then

I went to my local Japanese doctor this morning. I needed new prescriptions for my regular medications and I needed to collect the results of recent tests. As part of the Japanese Health Care System people as old as me (actually anyone over 40) are invited to go to the Doctor once a year for some tests. Since I need to get blood tests every three months because of taking cholesterol lowering medication, I had the tests done this time under the annual invitation. I also had other statistics taken like height and weight, had an EKG and a chest x-ray. I can also have other tests done like an upper GI if I go to clinic with the needed equipment.

So as I said, I visited my Dr. He had all the reports in front of him and my chest x-ray on the usual lighted panel. The first thing he said was, "You had broken ribs." I looked at the x-ray and saw whiter, more solid looking areas on three ribs on the left side. I explained to the doctor that at the time I took the fall (June 2008) doctors couldn't say for sure that they were broken. Well, now they could I'm sure, but who cares?

Personally I feel vindicated because I knew that I really did hurt whether or not the reason could be proven at the time.

For those of you who know about my recent health concerns, the numbers are improving - Hallelujah!

Yokohama Quilt Week 2010

You might notice a new slide show running to the right.  These are pictures of  yesterday's trip to Yokohama for the annual quilt show sponsored by Patchwork Tsushin magazine. My quilting sensei tells me that this show is older than the Tokyo Dome show and before the Dome Show was the biggest in Japan. Why it's called a week when it's only held for three days only seems to trouble native English speakers.

The trip by train from Ichikawa takes around an hour. The venue was  where the APEC Conference was held recently - a huge Convention Center complete with a view of the harbor, shopping mall and amusement park rides. Everything looks really neat and clean - lots of glass and stainless steel.

Many of the quilts were unavailable for photographs, but I was able to shoot some quilts that really caught my eye. I also got photos of a couple vendors that attracted my attention. One was the booth of Su Designs which has materials for Korean Pojagi and embroidery. I had a nice chat with the proprietress, and saw examples of some amazing work.

Another area was set aside for the work of women on an island in the Philippines where a Japanese woman has gone to teach them to quilt. She brings their work to shows like this and sells the quilts and returns the money to the quilters.

Japanese quilters are truly amazing.

If you would like to see the pictures one at a time with captions, all you need to do is put your mouse pointer on the picture and click. This should take you to Picasa where my photos are stored. You can view my other pictures as well.  Click around on the tabs and see where it takes you. Happy viewing.

Comments are always welcome!

A Clever Cat and Discovery at Daiei

You may remember Stubby chan, the Guest Home Cat. She's lived at the GH longer than anyone else. Since Gareth and Ruth are away, Stubby and I are taking care of the GH this week. My primary responsibility in Stubby's estimation is to ensure she has food in her bowl at quite regular intervals. On Saturday, my day off, the upstairs neighbor was asked to perform the feeding duties. Today I was about a half hour later than usual. After filling Stubby chan's bowl I saw the neighbor coming out of the office next door. She asked if I had fed the cat. Sometime earlier she had come out the front door of her apartment and there was Stubby waiting on her doorstep as if to say, "Georgia's probably not coming today, are you going to feed me?" Stubby is in her late teens, and looks more like an 'old cat' all the time, but where food is concerned, she doesn't miss a trick.

After making sure Stubby had an adequate lunch I walked into the town center to the Daiei Department store's food floors to get ground coffee and something for lunch. Coming up the escalator I saw that the display at the top had a definite "Christmas" theme. There was a small display of Christmas cards in the corner. To my delight I found 4 different cards that had an evening snow scene that included a church with a cross on the spire, and no mention of the new year inside! The cards are from the Sanrio company (Hello Kitty's Company).